The Tennessean

'We need to take a timeout,' said state Rep. Joe Pitts, a Democrat on the House Education Committee. 'I'm in favor of a robust discussion on the testing.'

'When you raise the bar, kids will rise to meet it,' said Metro Nashville school board member Will Pinkston.

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As the one-year countdown to Common Core state education standards begins today with the first day of school for many systems, Tennessee educators are fending off pleas to stop the clock for a timeout.

A group of Democratic legislators is forming an unlikely coalition with Tea Party Republicans to slow down or derail the launch of the Common Core, a multistate initiative that’s expected to put top-notch test scores even further out of the reach of Tennessee students by setting higher goals.

But the appointed officials who make the state’s education decisions are standing firm in their commitment to Common Core and the accompanying tests that some other states are dropping.

“When you raise the bar, kids will rise to meet it,” said Metro Nashville school board member Will Pinkston.

The standards, adopted by 45 states, define what students should learn at each grade level from kindergarten through high school to ensure that graduates are ready for the workforce or college. Under the current standards, only about 15 percent of Tennessee’s students are ready to handle college-level work when they leave high school, said Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman. Among those who attend college, about 60 percent land in remedial classes.

Common Core opponents argue against the standards for a number of reasons. Some say the promises of deeper learning and higher standards are empty, and some worry that local governments will lose control of the content given to their children.

Other opponents worry about the amount of testing and its cost, a factor that has caused other states to rethink their commitment.

States drop tests

Democrats and Tea Party Republicans share similar concerns over the number of tests given to students and the intense focus being placed on results of high-stakes testing, said state Rep. Joe Pitts, a Democrat on the House Education Committee.

“We need to take a timeout,” Pitts said. “I’m in favor of a robust discussion on the testing.”

Kevin Kookogey, former chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, would prefer to scrap Common Core entirely but is still in favor of a delay for now.

“I would hope that Democrats and Republicans could get together and make a joint press conference against Common Core,” said Kookogey, a Tea Party conservative who has spearheaded Common Core opposition events.

“A timeout on Common Core would indeed be warranted, at a minimum, so that everyone can step back and entertain honest debate about the implications of such grand designs that will drastically change the nature of education.”

Pitts thinks Tennessee should consider a plan similar to one recently adopted in Georgia that allows that state to implement the standards but drop out of the testing consortium that recently announced tests would be about $29 per student.

At least five of the 22 states that, along with Tennessee, formed the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness in College and Career (PARCC) consortium to develop Common Core testing have dropped out. In Florida, legislators have asked the education commissioner to consider a similar move.

The other Common Core consortium, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), also is reporting dropouts.

Board still on board

The Tennessee Board of Education just last month reaffirmed its commitment to the standards and the testing. “We are strongly supportive of Common Core, and we are going to continue,” board Chairman Fielding Rolston said.

The Common Core tests are expected to add roughly $2 million to the Tennessee testing budget of nearly $20 million, but also will add writing assessments for more grade levels, Huffman said.

“I think it’s important to put a stake in the ground,” Huffman said of setting more rigorous educational standards for students to meet.

The debate comes four years after Tennessee toughened its tests for reading, math and science in a broad effort to improve standards. Scores plummeted but have risen slightly since then.

Pinkston said education leaders know that not enough students are meeting current expectations, but more students are meeting the difficult standards than were previously.

Only half of Tennessee’s students are showing proficiency on tests of the current standards, and officials say Common Core lessons will only be tougher.

“It’s not going to be an overnight change,” Huffman said of student achievement. But he believes the slow gains on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP, indicate that students are meeting the challenge.

As officials slowly begin to warn parents that test scores may dip when students take the first-year Common Core assessments in spring 2015, teachers are worrying how the dip might affect their pay becausetest scores are increasingly tied to student performance.

“Teachers will have to adjust from TCAP to PARCC, and we want to make that as equivalent as possible,” Rolston said. Student growth from one year to the next will still be measured and used in teacher evaluations. But the first-year challenge will be measuring growth between the end of TCAP and the start of PARCC testing.

Common Core standards are only for math and language arts, so TCAP tests will continue in other subjects.

'Tennessee miracle'

Most of the 45 states originally committed to Common Core have already begun working toward making standards more rigorous.

Some fell short, but not Tennessee, said Paul E. Peterson, a Harvard University professor of government and policy and editor of Harvard’s “Education Next” journal. In the most recent issue, he ranks Tennessee as having the second-most rigorous standards in the nation. Massachusetts ranked No. 1.

“I have been very critical of Tennessee in the past,” Peterson said from his Harvard office this week. But recent test results showed a change so drastic that Peterson is calling it “the Tennessee miracle.”

To determine rankings, Peterson compares states’ standards to those of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which are similar to international student assessments.

For example, if Tennessee reports 50 percent of all students are proficient on state math tests, and that same 50 percent scores proficient on the NAEP test, “then this state deserves an A,” Peterson said.

In 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009, Tennessee received an overall F from Peterson, but the state was rewarded in 2011 with an A when the results of its own state tests started matching up to the NAEP results.

“Tennessee has pretty high standards,” Peterson said. “Very few states have measured up.”

Sample questions from the three types of tests

NAEP Math for 9-year-olds

Which one of the following represents 3 tens? A. 3 B. 30 C. 300 D. 310 (B is the correct answer)

TCAP for fourth grade

In one season a basketball team had a total of three hundred seventy thousand, nine hundred thirty people attend its games. How is this number written in standard form? a. 379,003 b. 370,930 c. 37,930 d. 37,093 (B is the correct answer)

Common Core for fourth grade

Three classes at Lakeview School are going on a field trip. The table shows the number of people in each class, including the teacher.